White Noise
by Rainweaver76
Summary: Fading in at the edges of her awareness, beginning to glow a foggy snow inching inward until everything was white. No shape. No form. No shadow. White. Part of a larger story I'm working on. Hope you enjoy :)
1. White Noise

White.

White noise.

Fading in at the edges of her awareness, beginning to glow a foggy snow inching inward until everything was white.

No shape. No form. No shadow. White.

Bright and blinding.

In the white noise is a sound, so faint. A slow, steady repetition.

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

Quiet yet growing closer. Louder.

Floating above the expanse of white but pressure, unmoving pressure at her back, beneath her body.

Her body? She could not feel it, really feel it, as if she's not connected to it at all.

Connected, tangled, something pulling at her arms, tugging at her hands like webs, fine chains, cold and smooth.

At the farthest edge of her consciousness she pulls at the fibers and feels a sharp pain but free as the entanglement falls away.

The steady _beep beep beep_ suddenly panicked and pitches in one long unbroken scream.

Swimming through the cloud of her consciousness she pushes out and away from the stinging sound.

Away from the cold dark white. Away from the emptiness.

Impeded by a barrier outside of her vision, cool and smooth and solid. Beyond it she can feel them, a myriad of minds milling over thoughts of life, death, living, dying, detached. Cool and smooth like the barrier in front of her. Feelings unfeeling. She pushes out against the barrier, trying to escape from the emptiness.

One now within the congregation of minds she can see them floating in the distance. Wrapped in white, surrounded by white, seemingly heads floating apart from themselves and heedless to this new one among them.

And then she feels it. One she knows. Here somewhere amongst the teeming mass. She follows it as if a beacon towards the unknown but more known than this unknown she doesn't know where she is but she knows that if she can find it she'll find salvation from this numbing void.

Pressing past another barrier as cold and smooth as the last, and another yet another she winds her way through the labyrinth until she feels it close, close enough to feel in her skin.

Here her ears pick up that steady repetitious _beep beep beep_ but muffled under a low, labored shift of air. She drifts towards her intention and the sounds do not falter, guiding her closer. Finding herself hindered by another barrier, lower and less substantial, she navigates around and over and into the vibration of that arduous sound.

Her diminutive form climbs towards the source of the sound, careful as she feels the same chains of entanglement that trapped her earlier. Unsteady on the uneven surface beneath her, her hands and legs slipping as she struggles to pull herself closer. Pushing out she finds it, that place that space that sanctuary. Her body molds itself against the form of the mountain beneath her, sinking into it with exhausted abandon. Her head alight on her aegis she allows her mind to take that final leap, falling in to this familiar space. The shadows begin to encroach into the blinding white, shapes and forms etching themselves from the nothingness. Cradled now in this place she knows.

Safe.


	2. Code 23

The low monotone played on a loop, cutting through the acute buzzing in his head. He can feel as much as see the red pulse of light through his eyelids as he wills his eyes open, quickly regretting it. Everything was blinding white and only further aggravated the nauseating headache that split through his skull. Pressing his eyes closed again for a momentary reprieve he tries again, swallowing once before opening his eyes. He can see his pulse as his vision bobs, sharp angles and shadows beginning to form out of the white fog. He swallows a silent grunt as he realizes he's in a hospital and tries to focus, the red pulse of light radiating through the sliver of a window in the door. The rhythm of the pulse is out of sync with the incessant beeping of the monitor beside the bed and their discord only adds further discomfort.

The flat voice repeats, echoing through the room and in his head.

"Code 23 on Level 8. All Security Personnel Please Report."

He watches the rush of heads past the narrow window, doctors and nurses in white coats against white walls, the flurry of motion between the red throbs. He closes his eyes.

"Code 23 on Level 8. All Security Personnel Please Report."

Remembering his training he starts at his toes, making sure he can move them with no sharp pains before moving on. Toes, ankles, knees, hip... there is a very present warm pressure against his hip but no pain as he can tell in his half sedated state. Shoulders... something is weighing down his shoulder on his right side. His arm? Elbows... Still the same pressure but on the wrong side now, as if something is wedged between his arm and his body. Wrists, fingers... his fingers curl around something soft and warm pressed into his side. Now thoroughly confused he opens his eyes once more and strains to look down towards his body only to be greeted by a shock of blonde curls on his chest. He flexes his fingers again and she emits a faint sound. He freezes, watching her with his breath in his throat until he determines that whatever sound that was wasn't pain. He forgets the rest of his protocol and begins to look her over for signs of trauma, at least as well as he can from their precarious position.

"Code 23 on Level 8. All Security Personnel Please Report."

Her curls are matted, dried with what he can only surmise was a bodily fluid or medical gel. She's badly bruised along her neck and arms but that is as much as her medical gown will allow. His eyes are drawn to angry purple bruising along her arms, each dotted at the center with a spot of dried blood. He rolls this around in his head before he realizes that the marks on her arms match the placement of the IVs currently entangling his own. He's trying to process all of this when one of the floating heads stops abruptly in front of that window and looks into the room. He can hear at the edges of his perception her yelling down the hallway at someone, waving.

"She's in here!" he makes out before narrowing his eyes at the door, unsure of her intentions. He finds himself instinctively curling his fingers into his partner, keeping her close.

"Code 23 on Level 8. All Security Personnel Please Report."

The door swings open and the sudden rush of light and sound sends him reeling, the knot of bile rising in his stomach as he clenches his eyes closed and his jaw tightly shut. He can sense the motion in the room now, a low growl rumbling out of his chest as he opens his eyes again and levels them at the nurse. She stops dead and raises her hands, as if in surrender.

"I just..." she starts and stops as his glare bores through her. She swallows once and raises her one hand higher, revealing a small medical scanner.

"I just need to check her vitals," she manages in a whisper, daring to take another step towards the bed. He feels his fingers clenching around the woman at his side as two more doctors appear at the door, neither brave nor stupid enough to step into the room.

"She's fine," he croaks out, the words burning their way out of his throat. That causes her pause as she looks him over once quickly, assessing.

"Sir, yes sir but I can't put 'she's fine' in her medical record or they will chew my ass, sir," she rattles quickly as if asking the prostrate man tied down to a hospital bed by a web of IVs and his unconscious partner permission to approach.

He considers her a moment more before softening his glare. She takes one long stride towards the bed and places the scanner against the back of Anderson's neck no more than a second before it beeps, the nurse quickly retreating with the sound.

"There, I..." she tries but fails.

"Now piss off," he grinds out, narrowing his eyes at her again.

She chokes on whatever else it was she was going to say and looks at him, incredulous.

"Sir, I don't think that's..."

"PISS. OFF," he repeats and she scowls at him, turning on her heel and scurrying out of the room. Closing the door behind her the two doctors who hadn't yet dared to move looked through the window a few moments longer before saying something to one another and hurrying down the hallway.

"Code 23 on Level 8. All Sec..." the loop halts and returns the hospital to its usual din, the red pulsing light fading from the window.

He manages a shallow sigh before closing his eyes again, trying to will away the pain in his skull. Flexing his fingers one last time to make sure she's still there he tries to silence his thoughts and sleep off whatever the hell this is.

Someone's going to have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.


End file.
